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Totally 100% true stories of the greatest RPG characters ever played by myself or my friends (please add your own - we are all friends here!)
Lance
United States
Moorhead
Minnesota
The coolest best thing I have ever done in my life is being a father
Caleb, the best 6 month old little brother ever
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Like many of you, my "serious" gaming life began with Dungeons and Dragons. It was introduced to me by my older brother when I was eight years old, and three decades later I am still a big time RPG'r.
I have played so many different systems, it would be almost impossible for me to remember or list them all. However, what does remain is the memories of some of the greatest characters ever created and put to paper.
While this is not an exhaustive list, it is, to the best of my knowledge, the greatest characters that I can recall being used.
Please feel free to add your own from your own adventures - but please, give me their entire back story. There is nothing more enjoyable than a really well written background of a clasic RPG character.
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Lance
United States
Moorhead
Minnesota
The coolest best thing I have ever done in my life is being a father
Caleb, the best 6 month old little brother ever
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Shinjo – LE Half-Orc Monk – D&D 3.5
Shinjo was a combination of incredible timing and extremely lucky dice rolling. I had been playing a Half-Orc Fighter that was incredibly one dimensional and that had run its course for me as far as character development. Fortunately, he met his untimely demise at the hands of a band of ogres and I was allowed to roll up a new character.
What followed was one of the best set of ability rolls I have ever done.
We roll 4d6 and drop the lowest and roll 7 attributes drop the lowest method. We also allow everyone to roll three sets of seven. Yes, that does make for powerful characters (normally) but it just works for us.
Anyway, Shinjo ended up with:
Str 20
Dex 18
Con 16
Int 12
Wis 18
Cha 12
I purposefully made him into a single target wrecking machine, with a focus upon grappling tactics and stunning. I played down his evil tendencies and tried to roleplay him as a master schemer – always looking for ways to use the system to further his own power and prestige.
The one drawback was that he was too good, and unbalanced the combats the party encountered, as there was very little the DM could do to endanger Shinjo’s life. With his ridiculously high AC (I think by the time he was 6th level it hovered around 30) and extraordinary saving throws, he was as close to impervious as they come. We ended up running into a lot of monsters that were tailored for me to have little affect, such as golems, and incorporeal undead. The problem with that however, was that the rest of the party had trouble with those monsters as well.
Eventually the campaign ran its course as many others do – lack of interest caused us to focus on something new, and Shinjo was retired. If old PC’s carry on after you are done with him, I can only imagine that he is still somewhere out there, slowly gaining experience until the day his diabolical schemes come to fruition.
Quote – “…” (Shinjo didn’t say much, so neither did I. He mostly let his fists do the talking)
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Lance
United States
Moorhead
Minnesota
The coolest best thing I have ever done in my life is being a father
Caleb, the best 6 month old little brother ever
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Jon the Untouchable – TN Human Thief – D&D 2nd edition
This was a character ran by my good friend Jason. Jason is always one for “concept characters” and this one was no different. His idea was to make “the perfect thief” who was more at home in a big city than out in the wilderness, getting dirty and disheveled. He had no weapons except for his crowbar. Yes, that’s right, he wielded a crowbar.
Jon’s ultimate goal was to become the richest person in the world, and he came very close to succeeding. He scrimped and saved every penny he could get a hold of. He loaned out his cash to other party members at interest rates that bordered on usury. At one point, he succeeded on having a solid gold sarcophagus returned to civilization and then proceeded to hold an auction for it while the rest of the party fought off thieves who had come to claim it. I don’t recall how much he got, but it was a small fortune. He then turned that money around and used it to start up a legitimate business as a front for his fencing operation.
Eventually, the local thieves guild caught wind of his action, and they presented him with the option of joining them or being killed. He of course did not want to share in his money making schemes so he rebelled and went into hiding, plotting his revenge. At one point, they captured him, and though he bought his life with his money, they gave him the “scar of the outcast” – a large deeply cut X on the palm of his left hand. From that day forward, Jon swore to never have the wound magically healed until he had his revenge. In the meantime, he wore a dark leather glove on that hand to both cover the cut, and also to remind him of his task.
Jon got a little brutal at this point. He started hiring assassins to kill off his enemies. He played both sides against the middle in his own party, the city he lived in, and pretty much anyone he ran into. Finally, after years of adventuring and planning, the campaign was coming to a close due to the fact that the over arching story of two wizards fighting for control over the world was wrapping up. Jon managed, in one fell swoop, to save an imprisoned Paladin Lord and turn him loose on the thieves’ guild HQ. After the paladin was done, Jon moved in, took over the operation, and proclaimed himself King of the Thieves.
Oh, and the rest of the party managed to save the world as well.
A fitting end to an amazingly well played character – I still bring him out from time to time as an NPC when it serves my purposes.
Quote – “Ah…but I must ask, what is in it for Jon the Untouchable?”
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Lance
United States
Moorhead
Minnesota
The coolest best thing I have ever done in my life is being a father
Caleb, the best 6 month old little brother ever
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Ragnarok – LE Human Mage – 2nd edition D&D
Another Jason creation. In a group of mostly good adventurers, Ragnarok set himself up as a young, evil necromancer, thirsting for power and control. We worked up rules for him that allowed him to wield a bastard sword. He specialized in touch spells doled out with his spectral hand, but wasn’t above the occasional lightning bolt either. When he created him, I did my sit down with Jason about what Ragnarok’s story was – the standard stuff: What does he look like? What are things he likes? Hates? What are his goals?
To answer that final question, Jason opened up his Deities and Demigods book and pointed to a single paragraph – Divine Ascension.
Looking back, there is no way the party should have put up with some of his antics. He stole, lied, and butchered prisoners. He wasn’t above torture, and he kept a lengthy list of people he needed to kill, and people he had killed.
But, he was a fun guy for the DM to have around.
Multiple sessions were based upon trouble that he had gotten the party into, or the lengthy attempts to stay out of that trouble once they were in it. Jason was able to walk the line of mild annoyance and outright menace very well, and no one ever considered having him thrown out of the party. In fact, when revenants showed up seeking revenge on their murderer, the party banded together to keep him from being killed, even though he definitely deserved it.
Like many of my old campaigns, this one died off eventually for some reason, probably because it was summer time and no one had any reason to remain cooped up inside a house on the weekend for hours at a time. One awesome thing about him though, is that this was my first ever campaign in my home brew world of Talas, a campaign world I have kept up and running for over 20 years, and Ragnarok still roams that world, still seeking his ultimate reward.
Quote – “What’s your name son?” (so he can add them to his “people I need to kill” list)
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Lance
United States
Moorhead
Minnesota
The coolest best thing I have ever done in my life is being a father
Caleb, the best 6 month old little brother ever
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Rutger “Danger” Robinson – Male CG Elf – 2nd edition
Ran by my good friend Chris, who I haven’t seen for a few years since he moved to Nebraska. Chris has always been infatuated by Rutger Hauer ever since the movie Bladerunner, so this was his homage to the actor.
This was back in the day where you could take a “kit” for your D&D character – kind of a precursor to prestige classes. Anyway, there was a kit called a “Swashbuckler” and Chris chose that. He gave Rutger a saber and a main gauche and proceeded to just have fun with the game. Nothing was too daring or outrageous for him to try. There are several amazing moments I could relate at this time, such as the time he took on a veritable army of hobgoblins on his own to save a group of children, or the time he dueled a Death Knight to a stand still during a battle of honor. However, my favorite moment he ever pulled off was when he leapt off a cliff in an attempt to land on a draconian wizard that was blasting the party with fireballs. He managed to land on top of him, kill him, and then use the wings of the creature to glide to the ground below.
He also pops up as an NPC from time to time in my campaign world as well. He owns a flying ship named the “Bladerunner” (of course) and sails the skies looking for adventure. Without a doubt, one of the most “fun” characters ever.
Quote – “You…you aren’t a really nice person, are you?” (Spoken to Ragnarok – see above)
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Lance
United States
Moorhead
Minnesota
The coolest best thing I have ever done in my life is being a father
Caleb, the best 6 month old little brother ever
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Punt – LN Gnome Fighter – D&D 3.5
Ahh, Punt. Every once in awhile I try and make a character that just goes against the grain. Everyone makes Dwarf Fighters and Halfling Rogues, right? Anyway, I became obsessed with making a gnome of some sort, and thought of making a barbarian for a little bit, but I realized that that was a little ridiculous. Instead, I made Punt.
Punt had maximum str and constitution, and not much else going for him. I decided that he needed to have a super high AC and then, while looking through the weapons, I decided that he had been a miner when he was younger so he used a military pick for his weapon.
Now this seems like a good idea because of the incredibly high critical damage, but I only got to roll a 1d4 for weapon damage. What this eventually became was a nice, steady stream of damage with an occasional burst of incredible bloodletting. A normal critical hit from his pick would do 60+ points of damage.
Eventually, with his small size and magic armor and shield, he had an AC of that of a battleship, and due to an incredible string of max HP rolls, he was a tank. He could stand in the middle of a group of monsters, taking hit after hit, while he downed them one by one like a methodical machine.
Unfortunately, Punt met his end like a lot of my characters do, lack of interest from the DM. The campaign he was involved in died off when the guy running it decided he had gotten bored with his campaign idea, which makes sense because I couldn’t tell you anything about the campaign other than we spent a looong time in a volcano at some point.
I feel bad that I never gave Punt a real distinct personality – I think he really could have shined with a strict disciplinarian personality, leading the group through word and action combined. Sadly, Punt was placed in my character folder (I have saved about 90% of my characters since I was 10) and he has not seen action in a long time.
Quote – “Just give me something to swing my pick at, I am getting bored”
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Lance
United States
Moorhead
Minnesota
The coolest best thing I have ever done in my life is being a father
Caleb, the best 6 month old little brother ever
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Slant Avamar – CN Human Fighter/Rogue – D&D 3.5
I remember creating Slant knowing full well he wasn’t going to live a long life. He was simply going to make way too many enemies.
I had decided to make a rogue because it had been a long time since I had played one. My friend Matt also made a rogue and we decided that I needed to take some fighter levels in case the two of us ever needed some muscle to back us up. I decided to concentrate on using a bow, and Slant actually ended up being fairly deadly with it.
I also played him as being a total coward. He would always situate himself as far away from the battle as was possible, and would run if anything got closer than 15 feet or so away. He actually did not take a single point of damage until he was 6 th level. When he did finally get stabbed, he made a beeline to the party cleric and demanded healing. He didn’t draw his longsword and engage in melee until level eight.
Now you might ask, why did the party put up with him? Well he was a master trapsmith and locksmith, and like I said, he was seriously deadly with his bow. Eventually it came to light that he had been bilking the party out of a portion of the treasure for a long time. In fact, he once declared that he could not open a vault (when he knew that he could) so he could sneak back on his watch to open it and loot it of the choicest items. This of course led to numerous loud arguments between the party.
Eventually he was butchered by members of said party along with the monsters we were fighting. I still say that the battle itself was created in the attempt at weeding out the less desirable characters in the party, which I guess was fine if that’s what the DM wanted. The campaign fell apart shortly after due to hard feelings felt by most of the people involved. Still, a candle that burns twice as bright burns half as long.
It was decided that the party druid (who got along with Slant a great deal) arranged to have him raised from the dead and he went out and got his revenge on the party before retiring with his vast fortune.
Quote – “I do not deserve this! I have done nothing to deserve this!" (screamed as he was being chased down and hacked to pieces by his compatriots)
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Lance
United States
Moorhead
Minnesota
The coolest best thing I have ever done in my life is being a father
Caleb, the best 6 month old little brother ever
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Hector Jorge Allejandro Miquel de los Santos – Mexican Bandito (gunslinger) – Deadlands
My friend Scott made this guy up, and he was straight out of central casting for the movie “Treasure of the Sierra Madre”. Dirty, scummy, bandoliers of ammunition over both shoulders, double barreled shotgun on his back, and enough pistols to equip a regiment.
Deadlands was a very fun system, and I ran a few campaigns with it before we lost interest. It is a game that is fun because of the extreme colorfulness of the different PC’s you can make. Everyone has seen a western movie at one point or another, and everyone can draw from those films for an unending amount of visual and audio references to flesh out their creation.
Hector drank, smoked, blatantly and crudely hit on women, and generally made a nuisance of himself. He was also a very good gunfighter. Countless times it was his combat ability alone that allowed the party to escape with their lives – a memorable instance of this was a gunfight between the party and a group of evil prospectors while travelling down the rapids of a raging river. Hector managed to light a stick of dynamite and get it to land in the other boat, blowing it up and sending his enemies to their watery grave. A wonderful cinematic moment and excellent ending to a brutal combat.
Eventually the campaign ended with the party solving the mystery of some Ghost Rock experiments taking place in California. They defeated the evil spirits and humans behind the situation, and rode off into the sunset. It was generally agreed that Hector took his reward money back to Mexico where he spent it on tequila and loose women.
Quote – “Oh senor, you have pissed off the wrong hombre today!”
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Lance
United States
Moorhead
Minnesota
The coolest best thing I have ever done in my life is being a father
Caleb, the best 6 month old little brother ever
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The Grandfather - human physical adept
I love playing Shadowrun, the difficulty is finding a GM that can run a decent campaign. The best part of Shadowrun is creating your character since you can pretty much do whatever you want given the creation rules. I don't know what it was, but I had been watching a lot of Kung Fu movies and I had become infatuated with the whole "old wizened kung fu master" character so I decided to make one.
The Grandfather was a little chinese man with the long drooping mustache, strange hat, and mind full of wisdom and stories. He could also kill people with his hands in seconds.
He was a lot of fun because of his code of honor. He would not attack unless he was attacked. He would not attack to kill unless the people he was fighting used deadly force. He was willing to risk his life for his teammates, and also the innocent people he met, especially children.
At one point, he was able to wrest magical control of a powerful magic sword from a yakuza boss which only made him more deadly. In fact, shortly after he bonded the sword to his soul, he was the only person between the party and certain death from a huge fire elemental which he dispatched (with some difficulty) with said blade.
I honestly don't remember how the campaign ended. I know the over arching story arc had something to do with cybermancy and a MegaCorp trying to take over northen California, but it is a little fuzzy as this was 15 years ago or so. Regardless, I do remember that The Grandfather was able to kill the yakuza boss (turns out he was a demon or something) and the corrupt corporation was brought to its knees.
The Grandfather returned to his cloister in China and lived out the rest of his days in peace and tranquility.
Quote - "Power gained from the blood of the innocent will always be lost." (said during his duel with the evil Yakuza boss, Mister Yin)
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Lance
United States
Moorhead
Minnesota
The coolest best thing I have ever done in my life is being a father
Caleb, the best 6 month old little brother ever
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Bram - Fighter - Original edition
Bram is only listed here for one reason - he was my first RPG character ever.
My older brother introduced D&D to me when I was 8 years old. His friend Mike was running a game and they needed another player, and Lorel (my brother's name) showed remarkable sibling coolness in asking me to sit with the big kids and play the game I had only heard about.
It was awesome.
I was told to play a fighter because it was the simplest thing to do. I remember rolling 6 sided dice and filling out the sheet. I actually saved it and looking here I see he had a strength of 15 and nothing else is higher than a 12. He has a two handed sword and a suit of chainmail and not much else. His first kill was an evil acolyte that the party ran into in the first room of the dungeon we entered. Next he killed a couple of orcs - the first time I had ever heard that word in my life.
Our party ran around the depths of that ancient temple for a couple of hours, collecting treasure, and killing anything we ran into. At one point, Bram picked up a cursed sword and was unable to drop it. To this day, I remember my brother asking what we could do to get it off me, and the DM said "You have two choices. You can either slam the sword against the gates of hell, or you can have the party cleric excorsize the curse and remove it".
We chose the latter.
After three hours of amazing fun, allowing my mind to imagine these amazing places and experiences, the parties luck came to an end. In true fitting old school D&D action, we went the wrong way and ran into a dragon that took little time in roasting us with his breath and eating us one by one. Bram was the last to fall, swinging his sword while still in the mouth of the fiery beast.
According to his character sheet, Bram was neutral, but I couldn't tell you anything about his personality beyond liking to kill things. It doesn't matter really, he opened the doors of gaming to me, and I thank him for it.
Quote - "I swing my sword and kill it!"
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Lance
United States
Moorhead
Minnesota
The coolest best thing I have ever done in my life is being a father
Caleb, the best 6 month old little brother ever
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Hank Abbott - Catholic Priest/Autoduellist
As much as I loved playing Car Wars as a kid, I am very saddenned by the fact that I only ever played one actual campaign of Autoduel. My friend Jeff (who has since vanished into thin air) ran the campaign and we had a very good time. GURPS is such a tough game to run. It isn't like you can just make a couple of rooms full of orcs and throw some adventurers at them. You need to create an in depth world for your people to roam around in, and NPC's are rarely run of the mill, so credit goes out to Jeff, wherever he is.
Anyway, Hank drove a heavily armored van festooned with crosses on each side. He preached the word of the Lord and brought God's justice to the highways. I don't remember exactly the exact weaponry he had, but I am pretty sure he had an ATG facing forward and VMG in a turrett. He carried stacks of bibles in the back and handed them out whenever he stopped on his travels.
Our group was trying to track down the leader of a motorcycle gang that was marauding the countryside. As we investigated further, we found out that the leader of the gang was actually in cahoots with some of the local politicians who were using them to forward their own intentions.
I don't remember the entire plot, but I do remember the big showdown on the highway, as Hank had convinced the gang leader to turn his accomplices in to the authorities. As our group barrelled down the highway at 90 miles an hour, we were beset upon by the remnants of the cycle gang and local mercenaries hired by the corrupt city officials, one of which was flying a helicopter.
As the bullets flew, Hank used his van to smash through two road blocks, blasting away at anything he could. The gang leader was in the van, throwing grenades out the windows, taking out many of his old gang buddies. Eventually, the helicopter managed to blast its way through the roof of the van and destroy the engine, bringing it to a shuddering hault.
Hank and the leader jumped into the bed of a compatriots pickup and sped off while throwing more grenades at the cyclists and using their personal weapons by shooting at the tires of their pursuers. After a long and painful battle, we were victorious. The helicopter was eventually destroyed by a salvo of rockets from another one of Hank's allies, and our group made it to the protection of the fortress city. We turned in the criminals and were heralded as heroes.
One of the best RPG campaigns I was ever involved in.
Quote - "Go with God, or I will bring you to him."
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Lance
United States
Moorhead
Minnesota
The coolest best thing I have ever done in my life is being a father
Caleb, the best 6 month old little brother ever
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Tindel - CG Elf Ranger - D&D 3.5
A character made by my friend Joel for the intent of having a damage dealer for the Rappan Athuk dungeon made by Necromancer Games. If you are unfamiliar with RA, it is reported to be one of the most deadly dungeons made for D&D, and I have to back this up.
Tindel did not do very well in the dungeon, and he is largely forgettable if it was not for doing one thing, having a truly memorable, heroic death.
Around level 3 or 4 in the dungeon, there is a chamber that is the lair of a supremely evil undead creature named Zelkor. Without giving away too much of the combat, Zelkor has the ability to Magic Jar into party members, using them to attack and kill their friends, all the while two iron golems breath poisonous gas into the room and bash the party to pieces. Did I mention that the stone doors close behind them?
It is a combat designed for a TPK (total party kill).
So the party starts fighting and are having their asses handed to them. The party fighter is possessed and chopping his friends with his axe left and right, the mage is on the ground dying from poisonous gas, and the cleric is trying to heal himself while two golems are using him for a punching bag. The rogue is currently trying to find a way to open the doors to escape.
Finally, they manage to find the release lever. The cleric comes to his senses enough to realize that a protection from evil spell with remove the magic jar affect. The ranger scoops up the dead mage and runs out of the room followed closely by the rest of the party. The look back and they see the golems stomping towards them, and they have about 30 hit points total amongst the 4 living characters.
Without a word, Tindel charges into the room, reaches the lever and pulls it, sealing himself in the room, but saving the rest of the party.
An epic end to an otherwise run of the mill character. I couldn't tell you a single other PC name from that party, but I will always remember Tindel.
Quote - "(the sound of a body being slammed against a stone door repeatedly)"
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Lance
United States
Moorhead
Minnesota
The coolest best thing I have ever done in my life is being a father
Caleb, the best 6 month old little brother ever
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Darreon Shadowstar - Gray Elf Thief - D&D 2nd edition
Darreon was the second thief in the same party as Jon the Untouchable, who had the misfortune of horrible timing.
For one, he was probably one of the coolest characters ever made, but he ended up being outshined by the force of personality that was Jon.
and...
For two, he was wielding two scimitars before we had even heard of Drizzt, but he eventually was simply called a copycat because of it.
Regardless, where it was Jon's job to pick locks, find traps, and horde treasure, it was Darreon's job to slink around, spy on enemies, and place some well timed backstabs during combat to even the score.
If your only exposure to D&D is 3rd edition and beyond, you might not realize that Thieves (not rogues as they are known now) were not exactly robust combat characters. They had little to no hit points, had relatively high (and by that I mean poor) armor classes, and they couldn't really do much damage.
Darreon set out to change that.
Without multi-classing, Joel turned Darreon into a death dealer. He went out and searched for the best armor he could possible wear (he ended up with magical elfin chain, a quest that took a good year of real life for him to track down) and then proceeded to outfit himself with any sort of combat bonus gear he could find. Towards the end of the campaign, he had managed to find Gauntlets of Ogre Strength, an amulet that increased his hit points, and he was wielding two +4 scimitars, one of sharpness, the other a defender.
While he was never able to equal the fighters of the party in damage dealing, he held his own, and he wasn't just a throw away when it came time to get down and dirty.
Before we ended the campaign, he had joined Jon in running the local thieves guild, but instead of being in charge, he was the guild's enforcer and main assassin. By his creator's own choice, it was decided that Darreon left the city one day and never returned, seeking one last final great adventure before he retired with his vast riches. It is generally assumed that he will never return...but who knows...
Quote - "Jon does the talking, I do the fighting, you do the bleeding."
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Lance
United States
Moorhead
Minnesota
The coolest best thing I have ever done in my life is being a father
Caleb, the best 6 month old little brother ever
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Granet - Obsidiman Nethermancer - Earthdawn
Earthdawn - what a great, great idea for a campaign world. Why, oh why did the game have to be so clunky in its mechanics? I have had several people tell me that the later editions of the game have improved it greatly, but I just have not been able to bring myself to look into at all, especially since I have found RPG nerdvana with Pathfinder.
Regardless, I ran a pleasant enough campaign of Earthdawn and everyone was excited to try out the new system. They liked how everything was both different and the same at the same time. It was obviously fantasy, but it had spun the basics of fantasy on its ear and had put the pieces of the puzzle together in odd ways.
My friend Brad saw the Obsidiman race and immediatly took a liking to it. But instead of satisfying the typical power fantasy, he took this supremely strong and powerful race and turned his character into one of a philosopher. Granet was an introspective man of rock that would much rather be reading an ancient tome of obscure secrets regarding lizardfolk burial rituals than out spelunking through a long abandoned Horror lair.
That being said, he wasn't above getting his hands bloody however, as could be seen the one time he picked up a stone table and smashed it over the head of a Worm Fiend.
Granet's spell use was of invaluabel aid when it came to discerning secrets and gathering information, but he would also use it in combat to devastating effect. He had the mentality that life and death were the same thing, and he did not fear either, seeing them as both sides of the same coin. He knew that one day he would return to the stones that had birthed him, and that made him happy, knowing he had a "home" waiting for him at the end of his journey.
I don't recall how the campaign ended. I think the players were eventually able to save their little corner of the world from Horrors corrupting it into their own image, but I do remember exactly what became of Granet.
After they defeated the big baddy behind all their problems, they were in the bottom of a giant tomb, its walls inscribed with thousands of passages, the very prayers and history of an ancient civilization written in the stone for all eternity. When everyone else got ready to leave, Granet chose to stay, and that's where he remained for the rest of his life, studying, reading, and conversing with the spirits of the long dead inhabitants until the day he was called home to very rocks that had spawned him.
Quote - "Well now, you seem interesting, tell me your story..." (while holding a recently discovered elven skull)
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Lance
United States
Moorhead
Minnesota
The coolest best thing I have ever done in my life is being a father
Caleb, the best 6 month old little brother ever
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Clyde MaCleod - CG Human Fighter - D&D 2nd edition
Every party needs a fighter, and Clyde was exactly that. My friend Matt created him with the intent of making a classic fun loving brawler that fought hard and played hard, and Clyde was exactly that. Every single cliche' was there for Clyde:
1. He had tons of weapons. In fact, towards the end I think we counted well over 16 different magical weapons on his character sheet, with his favorite being his +4 bastard sword of demon slaying.
2. As soon as he got to town, he immediately headed to the nearest tavern to drink off his wealth.
3. He always found the prettiest girl at said tavern and made innapropriate advances towards her. Gifted with a 16 charisma, he was fairly successful
(please note - we were all well out of high school at this point, so this wasn't a bunch of immature idiots acting out their strange fantasies at a game table - if anything it was a source of comedy relief)
4. He charged recklessly into battle, throwing caution to the wind. he was loyal to his friends and a bitter enemy to those he didn't like, and he was never against a little thievery if it meant he could buy more ale the next day.
5. After he got to the point in his life that he couldn't drink and carouse fast enough to spend his fortune, he ended up buying a mansion in the wealthiest part of the kingdom's capitol. He then proceeded to adorn the walls with his trophies. His most prized was the head of the ancient red dragon Rassit. He structured his den so that the fireplace was situated in the dragon's mouth. Rather ingenious for a guy with an intelligence score of 9.
6. When he grew too old to adventure, he opened and ran his own tavern, self described as "the greatest in the land". When I asked Matt what the name of his tavern was going to be, without hesitation he responded "The Rotting Virgin".
Nowadays, heroes always have to be complex, and conflicted, and have dark pasts they need to overcome. Looking back, I cannot help but feel refreshed by Clyde's singularity of purpose, and how much fun we all got out of Matt playing his creation at "11".
Quote - "Enough planning! CHARGE!!!!!"
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Steve Donohue
United States
Allen Park
Michigan
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Alaric the Pseudo-Dragonless CG Human Wizard AD&D 1st Edition
My brother Ron was never as into gaming as some of the rest of us. As a result, his characters were nearly always towering fighters with two-handed weapons and bad attitudes. His preferred alignment was CN
One day he decided he wanted to play a wizard. His only real goal in playing a wizard was to have a pseudo-dragon as a familiar. They were, of course, the familiar of choice. He was joining an existing game and got to start at 5th level. He wrote a history that made him something of an expert on pseudo-dragons. He acquired special material components for casting his Find Familiar spell based on the dietary habits of pseudo-dragons, then he went to an area where they were known to be common.
He rolled his die; the GM had given him a 2 pt bonus to the roll which he could use to change the roll to make it closer to 15. He rolled a 1. Whoops.
He made a few more changes to his sheet, going from Alaric to Alaric the Pseudo-dragonless. He changed his magic ring to a "Ring of Repelling Pseudo-Dragons". He adventured with us for a while but his heart was never really in it. At least once an adventure something bad that happened to him would be caused by his lack of a pseudo-dragon familiar. If we encountered any intelligent forest creatures, he would ask after his beloved pseudo-dragons.
He probably lasted only 5 or 6 adventures but remains an iconic character in our games.
Quote: "If I had a pseudo-dragon this would never have happened!"
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Steve Donohue
United States
Allen Park
Michigan
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Rethgif Nevle Flah CG Half-Elf Fighter (AD&D 1st)
His backstory wasn't that compelling, but his name was. He was played by Dan who generally named all his characters something backwards, typically musicians (Sleig Emorej, Kesaco Kir, etc). This particular day he decided to name his new human fighter Rethgif Namuh.
Over the course of our adventures, he died several times. We had a rod of reincarnation in the party, but no access to Raise Dead. As a result when he died, he was reincarnated. Each time he died he renamed himself to reflect his new race. He started as Rethgif Namuh, became Rethgif Frawd, then Rethgif Nevle and finally ended as Rethgif Nevle Flah.
Quote: What's my new name?
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There have been a few characters that came to mind for this but, topping that list is one played by a friend of mine in a campaign I ran.It was so long ago I don't remember the basis for the campaign but I remember Bragulum the Avenger, he was an Elven MagicUser/Thief who made it a point to rescue fair maidens and recruit them as followers whenever possible. In the game sssion that comes to mind he was level 9/9 and had recently gotten seperated from the rest of the party. He stumbled into a dragons lair after hearing a maiden in need of rescuing. In the dragons hoard he spotted one of the few magic short swords the party ever found. He snuck to the pile of treasure and grabbed it as the dragon awoke. The girl screamed and he pulled the sword from its scabbard and leapt in front of the girl to protect her. The sword glowed with a golden light and he exclaimed "I weave a web of golden death around us!" He did manage to kill the dragon with a little help from friends and went on to other adventures but, the imagery of that encounter has stayed with me ever since.
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Jerry Martin
United States
Loveland
Colorado
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Grog
Strength: 22
Intelligence: 3
Wisdom: 6
Grog's solution to every situation?
"Grog Attacks!"
Believe it or not, this was probably the most fun I ever had playing DND. Good Times with Good Friends Every Wednesday Night for years.
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Ronald Chavez
United States
Hacienda Heights
California
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Do you know what Melric does?
I still say that with my cousin when we talk. It takes us back to some great days.
Melric was my first characters. He became some great 43rd level fighter. See, when we played as kids, everything in D&D was so awesome and our intellectual capacity was not so great, we gave ourselves all the best items. We had epic battles with every monster on every plane of existence. We had no concept of how it really was to be played. It was grand and epic, but unrealistic.....but, hey, we had tons of fun... and that's what the game is all about.
Any way the answer is 3-30 fire or 3-30 frost damage. He had a great sword with a fire crystal on one side and an ice crystal on the other.
So after an attack, he could also do a fire or frost blast for the damage. Oh, and he got two attacks per round.
Did I say we played unrealistically?
Do you know what Melric does?
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J Chav
United States
West Valley City
Utah
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Danath Packrell CG Human Fighter/Sorcerer D&D 3.0
Danath has long been my MMORPG character and when I finally brought him to the D&D world he had to be right. My group rolls 4d6 re-roll 1's drop the lowest die and 2 or 3 columns depending on the DM.
I managed to roll three 18's and I believe a 17, 16 and a 14 (Makes me want to pull out his character sheet). I found the Spellsword prestige class and that was my goal.
We were able to start at level 3 and we were playing a defend the keep in a mountain campaign (the keep was carved out of the mountain). I don't remember exactly what was in the vault we were protecting but we were hired, as well as many other meat shields, to protect this item that the enemy couldn't get a hold of. The enemy was some type of dragon like humanoid.
Danath word a chain-mail shirt to keep his Arcane Failure to a minimum but still provide decent AC. He used javelins, a long spear, Mercurial Longsword (like a regular longsword but you roll a D10 and crits are only on a 20 but x3) and shield. His starting feats were Cleave, the one that allows you to take multiple attacks of opportunity per turn, one that allows you to "set" yourself up with a spear to get an attack of opportunity. There was some others but I don't remember them right now.
Our first battle was a slaughter house. A bunch of Kobols rushed us and Danath made Kobol Kabobs. At one point his hedgehog familiar might have been used as a weapon like a throwing stone. This got him notice of those in charge and he was promoted.
Now Danath had a complex. He was obviously very gifted and he was very self absorbed. Everyone in the group was looked down upon except the Half-Orc in the party. He respected the Half-Orc because he could win in an Arm Wrestle, sometimes. Our poor Half-Elf bard took our verbal abuse frequently.
Danath was able to get a magic item he was looking for. Boots of Speed (double your land speed). One catch however, they didn't work in direct sunlight. To fix this problem he had a robe made with weights in the bottom to keep the sunlight off his boots.
Danath also had a large stash of Magic Potions in a bag of holding which I've never had a character use so many Potions before.
Now this is getting kind of long but is needed to explain the best part of the campaign.
One more thing you need to know about Danath is he picked up a Hero Complex. Sometimes there was criminal action in the small town outside the keep and he would chase them down and capture them... mostly for the reward and glory.
Now on to the good part. Somehow our group Thief was kidnapped by the snake people (can't remember their names but they intended to turn him into one of them). There was no way our group could go in there fighting. This Thief owed me some money and I always collect my debts when someone owes me something.
I used my potions to be extra sneaky as well as invisible. Using my uncanny speed I entered the village and found our Thief locked in a cage. I slipped him a potion of invisibility and then used my Deck of Illusions which managed to get me an Iron Golumn (if I remember correctly) He used his gas attack which clouded up the room which gave me time to break the lock and get our Thief out of there.
First thing the Thief got once we were back into town was a bill for my services. He refused saying he didn't owe me anything and I eventually made him pay.
I later made a campaign where all my characters were NPC and 'Darting Panther' (mostly not to give it away who he was) showed up in time to help slaughter some Gricks and a Medusa.
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I once played a trainee necromancer masquerading as a normal wizard in a party of heros. To be honest, you'd think the 'Good Guys' would have caught on to his psychopathic tendencies by his violent streak, laughing at wounded companions, attempting to incite war between nations and cutting the head off a sleeping giant bat, skinning it, and mounting the skull on his staff. But they didn't. Which says a lot about the intelligence of heroes...
Line
Guardsman: And what is your purpose in our fair city?
Karloff: I am an apprentice necromancer, here to learn from underground evil sages, despoil your holy shrines, raise an army of the dead and laugh amongst the ashes of all you hold dear! MUAHAHAHAHA!
Guardsman: Really?
Karloff: No.
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An unscrupulous caravan master named Barath running supplies through the Drakwald during the storm of chaos, hiring anyone and anyone both cheap and expendable. His notable achievements include hiring a dwarf with a blunderbuss who not only failed to hit any target he aimed at but who actually knocked himself out on the recoil, declaring that budget accomodation was the way to go in this time of troubles and booking in at an inn (which turned out to be full of cultists) where he put his men in the stables and himself in the inn, and getting away with ridiculously overcharging the armies of the empire. He eventually came to a (very) sticky end when having fought away a horde of beastmen whilst managing to avoid any exertion more strenuous than yelling encouragement, his caravan guards turned on him without speaking, tied him to a nearby tree and left him for the beasts. I like to think he got away.
Quote:
Caravan guard "I don't like the feel of this place... there's something... Wrong about the people here."
Barath: "Yes, but it's cheap!"
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diclonius81
Finland
Loviisa
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In Call of Cthulhu my brother had a character called Misha, a Russian tribal fisherman who didn't have any particular skills and who couldn't speak a single word of English like the other characters did. One of my friends had to roll a character who could work as an interpreter (although the character wasn't that skillful). This situation caused a lot of misunderstandings. Stupid? Yes, but extremely funny too
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Andy Ravenscroft
United States
Madison
Wisconsin
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Sark - Warrior - Original D&D
Back in 1976 D&D hit my high school in the UK. We played almost non-stop for two years then everyone went to college.
For most of that time I ran a campaign loosely based on Michael Moorcock's Melnibonean universe, loosely in the sense that I took all the names from his books and some of the characters and overlaid everything from original D&D (and later the AD&D stuff).
My gaming group was a sharp and inventive crowd and they took particular delight in coming up with ways (within the rules) to mess with me.
Sark, named for a character from a fantasy story - I think it was an Edgar Rice Burroughs tale - was a particular source of pain for me. Run by Steve, probably the least interested of the group in FRP, he was a nasty piece of work.
Here's the set up:
We operated with a number of optional rules that I incorporated from various UK fanzines.
One of them that is relevant to this anecdote was handedness. Characters rolled for handedness, which might help or hinder them in a fight - lefties versus righties. On an exceptional roll a character was ambidextrous.
The other relevant one was Strength. If you rolled a natural 18 for strength you got to roll percentage dice for additional strength bonuses. If you rolled 00 on the percentage dice you did additional huge amounts of damage (+4 IIRC).
Steve rolled up Sark at one of our gaming sessions. Lo and behold, he's an 18 (00) strength, ambidextrous warrior.
How do you arm a character like that? He's strong and he can wield two weapons. Two broadswords, maybe? A mace and a sword? A longsword and a short sword?
No. Apparently you give him two daggers. Why? Well I soon found out. 2 x 2 strikes every round and 5 - 8 points of damage per hit (D4 +4).
Sark soon became the meat grinder. They'd put him in the strongest armour they had and put him at the front of the line. There wasn't much he couldn't chop into hamburger. The one saving grace was that he had a weak constitution so couldn't take many hits, but they had a decent cleric in the group who could heal him if things started to go bad.
The apotheosis of Sark's career was the time the group encountered a group of Hill Giants. Getting up levels was hard in my campaign and the most anyone ever achieve was 7th level. At this time the group was mostly 4th and 5th level. Pretty good, but Hill Giants were a challenge.
I expected them to bail and retreat PDQ from their quest when they ran into the Hill Giants at Earl Aubec's tower, since even Sark would have trouble putting them down, but no, they had something else in mind that I hadn't seen before.
Sark went up front and they cast a Speed spell on him. Yep, that's nice. Lots of rolls to hit, lots of D4+4 of damage.
On reflection, it showed how clunky some of the early D&D rules were, especially if you enhanced them with optional rules that could make a character really unbalanced. On the other hand, it was a hoot to see how long Sark could handle the heat at the front of the line, and he got very squirrelly when he took hits and got down into the single digits.
The campaign wouldn't have been the same without him.
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Andy Ravenscroft
United States
Madison
Wisconsin
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Rackhir - Archer - Original D&D
I wasn't happy with the original D&D archery rules, and I thought the game needed more classes, so I came up with the Archer, a class that was published in (I think) the UK fanzine The Beholder.
Rackhir was the first and only archer rolled up in my campaign. Named for Rackhir the Red in the Melnibone books, he was useful in a fight as he could lay into enemies from a distance while Sark took them on at close range.
In one memorable engagement, the dungeon party was travelling at sea when the ship was attacked by stirges. Rackhir did a yeoman's job, pulling out his longbow, nocking his arrows, drawing back the string and shooting them at long range. He whittled them down so that when they hit the open boat the rest of the party was able to take them out without too much loss of blood or life.
There was a slight problem once we'd spent two hours playing the engagement and tallying the results. Rackhir hadn't done much in a long time (just hung out at the back of the party) and both the DM (me) and the rest of the group had sort of forgotten that he'd lost an arm in an earlier fight.
We didn't replay the engagement. Just wrote it off as a willing suspension of disbelief.
Later in his career, in a moment of supreme irony, Rackhir was himself magically turned into a stirge. On reflection I'm fairly sure this wasn't just a moment of DM vengeance - IIRC the creature he was turned into was rolled on a table somewhere - but somehow after the transformation he ended up with two wings and had a fruitful career as a player character stirge.
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Emeryville
California
A Primer for Cross-Posting of Geeklists (BGG,RPGG,VGG)
Indiana
Moorhead
Minnesota
Regardless, I shall bow to the more vocal minority in this case in the efforts of doing the right thing.
I assure you, my intent was only to allow more people to enjoy the contents, there was no dubious intent on my behalf.